Mother-Child Closeness and Adult Children’s Time and Financial Assistance

Abstract Objective Drawing on the intergenerational solidarity framework and life course perspective, the authors assessed how mother-child closeness across different life stages is associated with adult children’s time and financial assistance to mothers in later life. Method Using children’s reports of their perceived closeness to mothers from waves 1 to 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and mothers’ reports about adult children’s time and financial assistance from wave 2 of the Add Health Parent Study (AHPS) in the United States, the authors investigated how mother-child closeness during adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood is related to midlife adult children’s support with a focus on difference between mother-daughter (N = 934) and mother-son (N = 899) dyads. Results Closeness during young adulthood was an important determinant of adult children’s time assistance to their mothers, regardless of child’s gender. Daughters’ closeness with mothers during young adulthood also had a direct association with their financial support to mothers but not sons’. In contrast, sons’ perceived closeness during emerging adulthood had a direct association with their financial support later in life. Closeness during adolescence had no direct association with later-life transfers of time or money but had an indirect association through its influence on mother-child relationships at subsequent life stages. Discussion Mother-child closeness is a continuously evolving process. Although mother-child bond formed during adolescence has no direct influence on help to mothers later in life, it shapes the progression of mother-child interactions over time that eventuates in support.